Love of God

It’s easy to miss the fact that Isaac strove with God for twenty years over his wife’s infertility before seeing a positive answer. His son, Jacob, showed similar persistence when he wrestled with the angel at Peniel. This …Read More

In John 17 we are invited to listen in as Jesus talks intimately with His Father. That prayer is often called the “High Priestly Prayer” of Christ. Thinking as I do that we read the Bible far too quickly, it …Read More

When I first encountered Reformed theology I completely rejected it. For nearly two years I fought against it with every possible argument I could conceive of. It wasn’t until I embarked upon a journey through the Scriptures that I …Read More

On March 19, 1969, my life and my understanding of the Gospel changed forever. That was not the day that I became a Christian. I did not attend church that day, nor did I hear a sermon. That was the …Read More

Love of Complacency
In his monumental biography of Jonathan Edwards, George Marsden cites a passage from Edwards’ Personal Narrative: “Since I came to this town [Northampton], I have often had sweet complacency in God in views of his glorious perfections …Read More

There may be nothing in the realm of religion by which people vainly attempt to establish their acceptability to God more than by acts of public or private worship. As a result, worship can degrade into one of the most …Read More

The picture the Bible presents of God’s love is one in which His love, even in eternity past, even before the creation of anything, is other-oriented. This cannot be said (for instance) of Allah. Yet because the God of …Read More

There once were two weddings. The first took place on a pristine beach on a lake high in the mountains. The setting was breathtaking. The young couple showed that sweet nervous excitement that made everyone smile. A classical guitarist picked …Read More

In his twentieth century classic, The Screwtape Letters,C.S. Lewis imagines the demon Screwtape writing to his nephew Wormwood about the need to discover the secret as to why God loves humans. He writes, “The truth is, I slipped …Read More

To be loved by the Father through the Son in the Spirit is to be caught up into an ever-flowing eternal love that progressively transforms, often painfully so, the one who is loved. As those who have been brought graciously …Read More

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Augustine, Confessions).
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but …Read More